Cuban migrants adrift at sea are rescued by cruise ship

Six Cuban migrants adrift at sea on a makeshift raft were rescued by a cruise ship last week, according to a video shared with CNN.

The video captured the impromptu encounter on Friday (19), as the ship Carnival Paradise sailed from Tampa, Florida, to Cozumel, Mexico.

Passengers appear cheering and cheering as the migrants approached the ship.

“They didn’t have oars,” said passenger Cintia Zingoni, who filmed the video. “It wasn’t a real boat. It was a piece of furniture, maybe a closet, and they used it as a boat.”

Zingoni, an Orlando, Florida real estate agent, was on the ship with her family and friends when they witnessed the event.

Their video shows what appears to be a small piece of fabric that the migrants were using as a sail and Styrofoam attached to the sides of the vessel for buoyancy. Zingoni said it also looked like the migrants were using a pot lid for paddling.

The migrants were welcomed aboard the ship, where they received a medical checkup, food and clothing, according to Carnival Cruise Lines spokesman Matt Lupoli. When the boat arrived in Cozumel, they were handed over to Mexican authorities, he said.

According to Zingoni, the ship’s captain announced to passengers that the migrants were dehydrated but well.

“I got sad. Everyone on the boat was dancing and having fun and they [os imigrantes] were dying,” Zingoni said. “It was almost a suicide mission to go into that piece of wood.”

Passenger Lee Smith said the weather that night got worse.

“As we headed for Mexico, we were going fast to make up for lost time, but there was a storm and lightning behind us in the area we had just left,” he said. “Good thing we caught people on the ferry.”

The dramatic rescue comes as US officials report a rise in the number of Cubans trying to leave the communist island, where government officials blame US sanctions for a broken economy.

Cubans who arrive in the United States and apply for asylum are usually able to obtain permanent residency under a special status granted by the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1962. Cubans rescued at sea by the US Coast Guard are usually returned to the island.

As Cuba grapples with mounting power cuts and food shortages, a record number of Cubans have left the island by crossing into the US from the southern border with Mexico or heading out to sea in small boats and rafts that US officials say are often pushed off course by ocean currents.

According to US Customs and Border Protection, more than 175,000 Cubans have arrived in the US from Mexico since July last year. In the same period, more than 4,500 Cubans intercepted at sea were returned to Cuba, the Coast Guard said in a statement on Tuesday (23).

It is not uncommon for cruise ships to assist with maritime rescues. On June 4, the Carnival Cruise ship Mardi Gras rescued 16 Cubans stranded about 110 kilometers off Key West, Florida.